[4] The Honolulu Star-Bulletin identified him as one of the "100 Who Made A Difference" in the state since statehood,[5] and Honolulu Magazine recognized his work, specifically on Broken Trust, as one of the "50 turning points" in the state's history.
[4][8] Starring George Clooney as Matt King, a Honolulu-based lawyer and the sole trustee of a family trust that controls 25,000 acres of pristine land on the island of Kaua'i, the film forces King to confront the realities of balancing the family's long-held interest in protecting the land with selling it to a developer.
[8] In 1992 and 1993, Roth co-authored a series of best-selling books called The Price of Paradise.
[11] In 2006, Broken Trust: Greed, Mismanagement and Political Manipulation at America's Largest Charitable Trust, co-authored by Roth and Samuel Pailthorpe King, a Judge for United States District Court for the District of Hawaii, chronicled the controversies that had enveloped Hawaiʻi's Bishop Estate, one of the nation's largest trusts, estimated to be valued by the Wall Street Journal at nearly $10 billion.
[12][13] Established by the Hawaiian Princess, Bernice Pauahi Bishop, in a trust before her death in 1884, the Estate was entrusted with running Kamehameha Schools, a private college preparatory school dedicated to educating Native Hawaiian youth.